Federalist Paper 10

The Federalist No. 10, The Utility of the Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection (continued) was first published in the Daily Advertiser on November 22, 1787, written by James Madison. Madison explains that a strong constitution most be able to control violence and hostility caused by passionate citizens. Madison explains that these factions can be dangerous to a democratic government; an example of this is the Shay’s Rebellion. However, Madison is aware that these factions will always exist in a democracy due to differing opinions of the people. Therefore, because a government cannot remove these factions themselves, they most control the effects these factions have. Madison goes on to say that these effects could be controlled easier in a larger society with a representative democracy rather than a small society with direct democracy. The factions in different states would be able to balance out each other; therefore, if one faction tried to disturb the country, it would not disrupt any of the other states. Madison also explains that representative democracy would be the best way to keep control over factions without completely eliminating liberty.

Federalist Paper No. 10 is still very relevant in today’s political environment because factions still exist. Today, most factions are special interest groups because they have access to representative officials, which others simply do not have. Representatives sometimes need the money that special interest groups have, giving these groups a sort of “hold” over the representatives. However, the government has a stronger hold over the power of these factions group, so the danger these factions hold would not be something to worry about.

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Federalist Number 10 begins by addressing the question of how to guard against factions. Madison defines a faction as “a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse.” Madison considers factions to be detrimental to the goals of government because they are adverse to the rights of other citizens. The author establishes two ways to limit the damage of factions. The first solution is to remove the causes of faction, which can be accomplished by destroying liberty or creating a society with unified opinions. Madison mocks the impracticality of such methods, saying “liberty is to faction what air is to fire,” and later on, “as long as the reason of man continues fallible… different opinions will be formed.” The author affirms...

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The purpose of No. 51 is, according to Madison, to "form a more correct judgment of the principles and structure of the government planned by the Constitutional Convention."[2] In the paper, this is done by informing the reader of the safeguards created by the convention to maintain the separate branches of government, and to protect the rights of the people.
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Alexander Hamilton of New York, age 32, and James Madison of Virginia, age 36.
Both men sometimes wrote four papers in a single week. An older scholar, John
Jay, later named as first chief justice of the Supreme Court, wrote five of the
papers. Hamilton, who had been an aide to Washington during the Revolution,
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Constitution.
Hamilton started the idea and outlined the sequence of topics to be
discussed, and addressed most of them in fifty-one of the letters. Madison's
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1. Madison says that “complaints are everywhere heard from our most considerate and virtuous citizens”—what are these complaints that people make.
a. “…that our governments are too unstable, that the public good is disregarded in the conflicts of rival parties, and that measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority.”
2. Are these complaints valid in Madison’s view?
a. Yes, even though he wished that they were not true, he couldn’t deny the facts that showed all of these complaints to be true.
3. What is Madison’s definition of a faction?
a. Groups of citizens who are passionate about a cause even when it may be harmful to the community as a whole.
4. What are the “two methods of removing the causes of factions”? What does Madison think of these two approaches? Is he in favor of removing the causes?
a. “the one, by removing its causes; the other, by controlling its effects.” He thinks the first one is unwise and the second one is impractical. He is not in favor of removing the causes, because the cause is liberty. He does not wish to remove peoples’ liberty.
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...as controversial as its contents. This is where the fight to ratify the constitution began. The Anti-Federalists had many central arguments against the adoption of the Constitution. The proponents, the Federalist proposed a better argument for defending the ratification of the new Constitution which caused them to prevail.
The Anti-Federalist were those men who opposed the ratification of the Constitution in 1789. The Federalists were those who favored a strong national government and supported the ratification of the constitution proposed at the American constitutional Convention of 1787. The Federalist supported a federal union- a loose, decentralized system. The Second Continental Congress declared that they need 9 out of the 13 colonies to pass the new Constitution. The Federalists proposed a better argument for defending the ratification of the constitution. On the other hand, the Anti-Federalists feel that the new Constitution will hurt the state governments.
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